Here’s a nice article about Gary Smith and his efforts to wear a pirate hat in his ID photo. Until now they have denied him, issuing him temporary licenses without the photo. I find it inspiring that he keeps up the fight.

I admire the people who wish to wear religious headwear – colander or pirate hat – in their ID photos, while putting up with the questions, smirks, or full-on discrimination of workers. I hear about it often, and most people give up after being denied. It takes a special type of person to continue to fight for their rights. I have no doubt that Gary will be successful.

The article goes into detail about some of his other Pastafarian activites and outreach, it is truly impressive. Let’s find a way to help the effort.

Pease check out the Richmond News article about Gary.

Here’s a nice article about the growth of the Church of the FSM in Australia. An interesting dynamic there is the every-five-year census that includes religious preference. The results of the census influence funding and social programs. Australia does not currently recognize the Church of the FSM as an “official” religion so Pastafarians are at a disadvantage. Still, it sounds like the situation is improving.

When Census night 2021 rolled around, Pirate Priestess Angela Carter and her husband Captain Colin “Cupcakes” Carter followed an instruction from their leader and selected the “no religion” option where the nationwide survey asked respondents about their religious affiliations.

Yet the Carters are actually among a growing number of Australians who consider themselves to be Pastafarians, or members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

They are also ministers and owners of the only recognised church of their faith in the country, but they checked the “no religion” box because they didn’t want to be counted as Christians in the census.

abc.net.au

Here is the article.

Apparently our website is blocked by some company firewalls because it is in the “cults” category. I am wondering how common this is — have many of you encountered this?

I want to share the Trailer from Mosey The Pirate – an upcoming game that features the Flying Spaghetti Monster in all of His glory. It’ll be available on Steam soon.

Some of the Australia-bound ordinations are coming back in the mail — there is some disruption to mail service because of Covid it sounds like. We are re-sending all the ones that have come back in the mail, but there may be more lost Ordinations that we don’t know about. If you’re still waiting on an Ordination please let me know (I emailed also). Sorry for the delay.